In one aspect, the invention relates to a gas distributor. In another aspect, the invention relates to a carbon black reactor. In yet another aspect, the invention relates to a process for producing carbon black.
Many present commercial reactors for carbon black production utilize tangential air entry and axial oil entry. Newer generation reactors utilize axial air entry and have the capabilities of utilizing either or both axial and radial oil entries. An advantage of the newer reactors is their ability to produce low grit content carbon black. A problem encountered in scale up of small reactors to large ones is that of poor air distribution at the upstream end of the reactor. Poor air distribution can cause unstable combustion and will usually lead to poor predictability of resultant product properties. An air distributor for an axial flow reactor which is easy to scale up and adapt to any size reactor and provides stable combustion would clearly be very desirable.